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The Commuter Emergency Plan: Do you have one?

This entry was posted on February 18, 2014 by beprepared.

We often talk about making an emergency plan for your family, work, or school, but how many of you have an emergency plan for traveling from your home to your emergency meeting place? Right next to the important documents in your emergency kit, make sure you save room for your Commuter Emergency Plan.

FEMA’s National Preparedness Community recently published a Commuter Emergency Plan that you can download and print. They suggest that the purpose of this plan is to help you come up with alternate routes for “traveling between your work and home, or other commonly visited locations in case of an emergency.”

During an emergency, your regular routes home from work or school may be blocked by traffic or debris. The purpose of FEMA’s Commuter Emergency Plan is to help you think about that possibility and how you can get to safe destinations (like your home) using alternative routes.

The Commuter Emergency Plan is a well-thought-out document—it takes into consideration the different types of transportation you could use to get from point A to point B. It also asks you to think about two alternative routes you can use and gives you links to public transportation systems so you can find updates on the transit systems that are still working.

Check out FEMA’s Commuter Emergency Plan below, print one out, and start thinking about the alternate routes you’d use to get to safety in an emergency.